Working from Vietnam as a United States resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Vietnam

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Vietnam, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueRight to work

   Local-facing work without a permit carries real fines and deportation risk

   Taking local jobs, visiting Vietnamese customers or earning Vietnamese-source income without a work permit is enforced, unlike quiet remote work for a foreign employer. The administrative penalty for illegal work is VND 15 to 25 million, roughly USD 600 to 1,000, with possible deportation and an entry ban on top. Overstaying the visa itself carries separate escalating fines by days overstayed, though the exact day-by-day schedule could not be confirmed to a primary source.

2. Significant issueTax residency

   Past 183 days you become a Vietnamese tax resident

   More than 183 days of presence, counted in a calendar year or any rolling 12 consecutive months from your first arrival, makes you a Vietnamese tax resident under Law 109/2025/QH15. Arrival and departure days each count as a full day, and short exits for regional trips do not reset the count. Once resident, your worldwide income becomes taxable in Vietnam at progressive rates, not just what you earn locally.

3. Significant issueMoving your company

   Running your foreign company from Vietnamese soil is the classic PE trap for a relocating founder

   Concluding contracts, exercising management, or otherwise performing your foreign company's business from inside Vietnam can create a Vietnamese permanent establishment, pulling attributable profits into the standard 20 percent corporate income tax plus registration and withholding duties. On the ownership side, Vietnam has no comprehensive CFC regime taxing you on undistributed foreign-company profits, but you are taxed on distributions, dividends, as worldwide income once you are resident, and the same place-of-effective-management argument that creates a PE can override an offshore company structure entirely. In practice, the bigger CFC-style risk for most movers actually sits back in their former home country on exit, not in Vietnam.

4. Significant issuePermanent establishment risk

   Signing contracts or managing from Vietnamese soil risks creating a permanent establishment

   Concluding contracts, exercising management functions, or otherwise running your employer's or company's business from inside Vietnam can create a Vietnamese permanent establishment for that business. A deemed PE pulls attributable profits into Vietnamese corporate income tax at the standard 20 percent rate and creates registration and withholding duties. A purely remote employee who does their own foreign employer's work, with no contract authority and no management function, sits in a meaningfully lower-risk position than someone signing deals or directing the business from here.

5. Significant issuePersonal income tax

   Resident tax runs 5 to 35 percent across five bands

   Once you are a Vietnamese tax resident, Law 109/2025/QH15 sets five progressive bands on monthly taxable income, 5 percent up to VND 10 million, 10 percent from 10 to 30 million, 20 percent from 30 to 60 million, 30 percent from 60 to 100 million, and 35 percent above VND 100 million. A personal deduction of VND 15.5 million per month, 186 million per year, and a dependent deduction of VND 6.2 million per month each reduce the taxable base, alongside compulsory insurance and capped healthcare and education expense deductions. Sources differ slightly on whether the new brackets take effect 1 January 2026 or 1 July 2026, so treat the exact commencement date as worth confirming before you rely on it.

6. Significant issueResidency routes

   No passive-income, retirement or nomad-to-residence visa exists

   Vietnam has no D7-style passive-income visa, no retirement or pensioner permit, and no dedicated digital-nomad-to-residence route. This is a real structural gap compared to Portugal, Spain or Thailand, and it is the first thing to understand if you are picturing an easy paperwork path to living here long-term without building something local.

What tends to surprise people here

• No digital nomad visa, so remote work sits in a tolerated legal grey zone
• A registered lease alone can trigger tax residency even under 183 days
• No US-Vietnam tax treaty is in force

Tax treaty between United States and Vietnam